Sea level changes over time because of water mass exchange among the oceans and continents, ice sheets, and atmosphere. It fluctuates also due to variations of seawater salinity and temperature known as the steric contributor. GRACE-based Stokes coefficients provide a valuable source of information, about the water mass exchange as the main contributor to the Earth’s gravity field changes, within decadal scales. Moreover, measuring seawater temperature and salinity at different layers of ocean depth, Argo floats help to model the steric component of Global Mean Sea Level. In this study, we evaluate the Global Mean Sea Level (GMSL) budget closure using satellite altimetry, GRACE, and Argo products. Hereof, considering the most recent released GRACE monthly products (RL06), we examine an iterative remove-restore method to minimize the effect of artifact leaked large signal from ice sheets and land hydrology. In addition, the effect of errors and biases in geophysical model corrections, such as GIA, on the GMSL budget closure is estimated. Moreover, we quantify the influence of spatial and decorrelation filtering of GRACE data on the GMSL budget closure. In terms of the monthly fluctuations of sea level, our results confirm that closing the GMSL budget is highly dependent on the choice of the spatial averaging filter. In addition, comparing the trends and variations for both the global mean sea level time series and those estimated for mass and steric components, we find that spatial averaging functions play a significant role in the sea level budget closure.

Time-varying spherical harmonic coefficients determined from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) data provide a valuable source of information about the water mass exchange that is the main contributor to the Earth’s gravity field changes within a period of less than several hundred years. Moreover, by measuring seawater temperature and salinity at different layers of ocean depth, Argo floats help to measure the steric component of global mean sea level (GMSL). In this study, we quantify the rate of barystatic sea-level change using both GRACE RL05 and RL06 monthly gravity field models and compare the results with estimates achieved from a GMSL budget closure approach. Our satellite altimetry-based results show a trend of 3.90 ± 0.14 mm yr−1 for the GMSL rise. About 35% or 1.29 ± 0.07 mm yr−1 of this rate is caused by the thermosteric contribution, while the remainder is mainly due to the barystatic contribution. Our results confirm that the choice of decorrelation filters does not play a significant role in quantifying the global barystatic sea-level change, and spatial filtering may not be needed. GRACE RL05 and RL06 solutions result in the barystatic sea-level change trends of 2.19 ± 0.13 mm yr−1 and 2.25 ± 0.16 mm yr−1, respectively. Accordingly, the residual trend, defined as the difference between the altimetry-derived GMSL and sum of the steric and barystatic components, amounts to 0.51 ± 0.51 and 0.45 ± 0.44 mm yr−1 for RL05 and RL06-based barystatic sea-level changes, respectively, over January 2005 to December 2016. The exclusion of the halosteric component results in a lower residual trend of about 0.36 ± 0.46 mm yr−1 over the same period, which suggests a sea-level budget closed within the uncertainty. This could be a confirmation on a high level of salinity bias particularly after about 2015. Moreover, considering the assumption that the GRACE-based barystatic component includes all mass change signals, the rather large residual trend could be attributed to an additional contribution from the deep ocean, where salinity and temperature cannot be monitored by the current observing systems. The errors from various sources, including the model-based Glacial Isostatic Adjustment signal, independent estimation of geocenter motion that are not quantified in the GRACE solutions, as well as the uncertainty of the second degree of zonal spherical harmonic coefficients, are other possible contributors to the residual trend.

The geoid, according to the classical Gauss–Listing definition, is, among infinite equipotential surfaces of the Earth’s gravity field, the equipotential surface that in a least squares sense best fits the undisturbed mean sea level. This equipotential surface, except for its zero-degree harmonic, can be characterized using the Earth’s global gravity models (GGM). Although, nowadays, satellite altimetry technique provides the absolute geoid height over oceans that can be used to calibrate the unknown zero-degree harmonic of the gravimetric geoid models, this technique cannot be utilized to estimate the geometric parameters of the mean Earth ellipsoid (MEE). The main objective of this study is to perform a joint estimation of W0, which defines the zero datum of vertical coordinates, and the MEE parameters relying on a new approach and on the newest gravity field, mean sea surface and mean dynamic topography models. As our approach utilizes both satellite altimetry observations and a GGM model, we consider different aspects of the input data to evaluate the sensitivity of our estimations to the input data. Unlike previous studies, our results show that it is not sufficient to use only the satellite-component of a quasi-stationary GGM to estimate W0. In addition, our results confirm a high sensitivity of the applied approach to the altimetry-based geoid heights, i.e., mean sea surface and mean dynamic topography models. Moreover, as W0 should be considered a quasi-stationary parameter, we quantify the effect of time-dependent Earth’s gravity field changes as well as the time-dependent sea level changes on the estimation of W0. Our computations resulted in the geoid potential W0 = 62636848.102 ± 0.004 m2 s−2 and the semi-major and minor axes of the MEE, a = 6378137.678 ± 0.0003 m and b = 6356752.964 ± 0.0005 m, which are 0.678 and 0.650 m larger than those axes of GRS80 reference ellipsoid, respectively. Moreover, a new estimation for the geocentric gravitational constant was obtained as GM = (398600460.55 ± 0.03) × 106 m3 s−2.

According to the classical Gauss–Listing definition, the geoid is the equipotential surface of the Earth’s gravity field that in a least-squares sense best fits the undisturbed mean sea level. This equipotential surface, except for its zero-degree harmonic, can be characterized using the Earth’s Global Gravity Models (GGM). Although nowadays, the satellite altimetry technique provides the absolute geoid height over oceans that can be used to calibrate the unknown zero-degree harmonic of the gravimetric geoid models, this technique cannot be utilized to estimate the geometric parameters of the Mean Earth Ellipsoid (MEE). In this study, we perform joint estimation of W0, which defines the zero datum of vertical coordinates, and the MEE parameters relying on a new approach and on the newest gravity field, mean sea surface, and mean dynamic topography models. As our approach utilizes both satellite altimetry observations and a GGM model, we consider different aspects of the input data to evaluate the sensitivity of our estimations to the input data. Unlike previous studies, our results show that it is not sufficient to use only the satellite componentof a quasi-stationary GGM to estimate W0. In addition, our results confirm a high sensitivity of the applied approach to the altimetry-based geoid heights, i.e. mean sea surface and mean dynamic topography models. Moreover, as W0 should be considered a quasi-stationary parameter, we quantify the effect of time-dependent Earth’s gravity field changes as well as the time-dependent sea-level changes on the estimation of W0. Our computations resulted in the geoid potential W0 = 62636848.102 ± 0.004 m2s-2 and the semi-major and –minor axes of the MEE,a = 6378137.678 ± 0.0003 m and b = 6356752.964 ± 0.0005 m, which are 0.678 and 0.650 m larger than those axes of the GRS80 reference ellipsoid, respectively. Moreover, a new estimation for the geocentric gravitational constant was obtained as GM = (398600460.55 ± 0.03) × 106 m3s-2.

The principle of isostasy plays an important role to understand the relation between different geodynamic processes. Although, it is difficult to find an exact method that delivers a complete image of the Earth structure. However, gravimetric methods are alternative to provide images of the interior of the Earth. The Earth’s crust parameters, i.e. crustal depth and crust-mantle density contrast, can reveal adequate information about the solid Earth system such as volcanic activity, earthquake and continental rifting. Hence, in this study, a combine Moho model using seismic and gravity data is determined to investigate the relationship between the isostatic state of the lithosphere and seismic activities in East Africa. Our results show that isostatic equilibrium and compensation states are closely correlated to the seismicity patterns in the study area. For example, several studies suggest that African superplume causes the rift valley, and consequently differences in crustal and mantle densities occur. This paper presents a method to determine the crustal thickness and crust-mantle density contrast and consequently one can observe low-density contrast (about 200 kg/m3 ) and thin crust (about 30 km) near the triple junction plate tectonics in East Africa (Afar Triangle), which confirms the state of overcompensation in the rift valley areas. Furthermore, the density structure of the lithosphere shows a large correlation with the earthquake activity, sub-crustal stress and volcanic distribution across East Africa.

There is an exceptional opportunity of achieving simultaneous and complementary data from a multitude of geoscience and environmental near-earth orbiting artificial satellites to study phenomena related to the climate change e.g. sea level change, ice melting, soil moisture variation, temperature changes, and earth surface deformations. In this study, we focus on permafrost thawing and its associated gravity change, and organic material changes using GRACE data and other satellite- and ground-based observations. The estimation of permafrost changes requires combining information from various sources, particularly using the gravity field change, surface temperature change, and GIA. The most significant factor for careful monitoring of the permafrost thawing is the fact that this process could be responsible for releasing an additional enormous amount of greenhouse gases emitted to the atmosphere, most importantly to mention Carbone dioxide and Methane that are currently stored in the frozen ground. The results of a preliminary numerical analysis reveal a possible existence of a high correlation between the secular trends of greenhouse gases, temperature and equivalent water thickness in the selected regions. Furthermore, according to our estimates based on processing the GRACE data, the groundwater storage attributed to the due to permafrost thawing increased at the annual rates of 3.4, 3.8, 4.4 and 4.0 cm, in Siberia, northern Alaska, and Canada. Despite a rather preliminary character of our results, these findings indicate that the methodology developed and applied in this study should be improved by incorporating the in situ permafrost measurements.

11. Towards a world vertical datum defined by the geoid potential and Earth’s ellipsoidal parameters

Sustainable development and digitalization need reliable data. Geospatial data becomes a more and more important tool in society for many kinds of research of immediate use, but also for future planning and enterprise. Harmonization of geodata is very important for data producers and organizations, e.g. for mapping agencies. Establishing a uniform horizontal/vertical reference system is a basic prerequisite for combining data from different sources, and for allowing cross-border presentations and analyzes. If we do not use the same reference for positioning, it is not certain that one can compose reliable geodata from different organizations.

The overall aim of this study is to provide a theoretical and practical solution to unifying height systems in order to overcome systematic datum inconsistencies in height data and digital terrain models. The study deals with a variety of issues in physical geodesy such as Earth’s gravity field, sea level rise, sea surface topography and GNSS data. The advent of satellite altimetry in the 1970s provided a tool for the realization of a global vertical datum as being the equipotential surface of the Earth’s gravity field that minimizes the sea-surface topography (SST) all over the oceans in a least-squares sense. This leads to a direct determination of the geoid potential (W0) from satellite altimetry and an Earth Gravitational Model (EGM). In contrast, here we will first determine the Mean Earth Ellipsoid parameters and from these follows W0. This means that once the size of the axes of the globally best-fitting ellipsoid is determined, W0 follows. A major problem with this methodis that satellite altimetry is only successful over the oceans, but the method requires global data. This problem is solved by employing satellite altimetry and the EGM in a practical combination.

Phase delay caused by atmospheric effects due to spatial and temporal variations of pressure, temperature, and water vapor content is one of the major errors ources in estimation of ground deformation by interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR). Therefore, accuracy of ground deformation measurement is highly contingent on the robustness of the atmospheric correction techniques. These techniques rely eitheron auxiliary data such as numerical weather models or on the analysis of the interferometric phase itself. The accuracyin phase delays estimation of mixing effectsof turbulent delay in atmosphere and stratified delay in lower troposphere is a key factor in determination of performanceof each technique. Hence, the performance evaluation of the techniques is required in order toassess their potentials, robustness and limitations. This paper analyzes and evaluates the performance of four numerical weather models (i.e., ERA-Interim, ERA5, MERRA2 and WRF) and two phase-based techniques (i.e., linear and power law) to estimate phase delay using Sentinel-1A/B data over the Corvara landslide located in the Alps. The GPS data and GACOS product were used to validate the results. We generally found that ERA5 outperformed among other weather models with a phase standard deviation reduction of 77.7%(with respect to the InSAR phase), a correlation coefficient of 0.86 (between InSAR phase and estimated tropospheric delay) and a less significant error in the velocity estimation of the landslide.

Our direct environment affects our lives directly. Christopher Alexander saw that we are able to feel or see if an object or structure is natural through the characteristics of them. He also saw that we generally feel better near these living, natural structures as it more closely resembles ourselves. Our bodies and our surroundings are made up of far more smaller than large things. When structures follow this pattern they are considered to be more natural, and when they move away from this pattern they are considered to be less natural and thus often boring or ugly. This scaling law is used to analyse the complex networks within cities. By analysing underlying structures instead of direct geometry it becomes possible to identify how living they are.This study applies these theories to analyse urban morphology within different cities. By identifying living structure within cities comparisons can be made between different types of cities. Specifically artificial and historical cities are analysed as they are counterparts in livingness. Following the identification of the living structure within these different types of cities an assessment can be made on what kind of an effect this has on our wellbeing based on Alexander’s theory. To see how living structure evolves over time a second analysis is performed which compares a city with its own evolution through time.Firstly natural cities and natural streets are identified in a bottom up approach based on the underlying structures of OpenStreetMap road data. Thereafter historical cities are compared with artificial cities because historical cities generally have living structure while artificial cities lack this. Then the developments of a historic city are identified and compared temporally. This research finds that current usage of concrete, steel and glass combined with very fast development speeds is detrimental to living structure within cities currently. Newer city developments should be performed in symbiosis with older city structures and the structure of the development should inhibit scaling as well as the buildings themselves. It is not sufficient to look only at geometry when managing cities, the importance of the fractal geometry, which is initially invisible must not be underestimated.

By station and track section in elevated position is meant that they lie on a plane above the ground surface. Previously, ground planes in the air with the help of 3D properties have never been implemented in Sweden.

Today, relatively few 3D properties are formed in Sweden in comparison to how many properties there are in total. This study aims to investigate which property formation is most appropriate and what advantages there are with using 3D or traditional 2D properties for a station and track section in elevated position.

In order to get answers to the questions, the thesis work was initiated with a literature review and then interviews and the collection of legal acts were applied. These collections were later compiled in a result of what advantages are available with 2D and 3D-properties, respectively, and what is most appropriate for a station and track section in elevated position.

The authors examined a planned railway station and track section in elevated position in Norrkoping municipality in connection with the implementation of Ostlanken. Ostlanken is a railway project for double-track high-speed rail between Stockholm and Linkoping. The purpose of Ostlanken is to increase the capacity for rail traffic for both passenger and freight traffic and to expand a new strain path. It is an investment in environmentally friendly communications and faster trains that contribute to sustainable travel and transport. The property for the future railway station in Norrkoping has not yet been formed and this study will be the basis for decisions. The study was designed to apply generally to railway tracks in elevated position and can be applied to similar cases like that in Norrkoping municipality.

The authors compared which property formation is most appropriate for a station and track section in elevated position. The conclusion is that 3D properties have more advantages and benefits compared to a traditional 2D property and associated easements, which means that 3D properties should be used for such an infrastructure project as a railway station in elevated position.

This study will describe how a digitization of the detailed planning process affects the formation of a property in a plan implementation.

How the investments made by the state to the authorities, municipalities and organizations to try to be at the forefront of society's growth and leading edge reaches out.

The purpose of the government is to provide easier access to detailed plans through digital aids, in order to make the information more easily available compared to todays analogue formats in the municipality's archive, ie in paper form. Today, the subject of digitalization is extremely relevant in the media, but also a large part of our processes for developing and streamlining highlights the opportunities that it brings. Although the journey within a digital community building process as a whole has been going on for a long time and does not stop here, there are clear examples that Sweden's municipalities are not united in the work and development.

The study will mainly highlight the opportunity for medium-sized municipalities to keep up with the development and how private developers are affected by the changes that take place in the digitization work. The study deals with how a digital detailed planning process can influence the planning work, the plan implementation and subsequent property formation.

The focus of the study lies on the effect that digital detailed planning process will have on the plan implementation and subsequent property formation. These points address both economic and legal aspects of land surveying.

Many cities in Sweden are partly located on clay and because of that, some urban city centres are undergoing significant subsidence. To measure subsidence in cities, precise leveling has been the traditional technique, but the interest for the Persistent Scatter InSAR (PSI) technique has increased in the last years, in this application. With the PSI technique, a mm-accuracy can be obtained and the analyses can be done over large areas. In this study, a validation between the PSI and the precise leveling techniques was performed for a selection of buildings located in areas that are facing great subsidence. A correlation between the subsidence rate achieved in the PSI analyses and near-surface soil type was also done, to easier identify risk zones. The city of Uppsala was chosen as study area, because it is partly built on deep layers of clay and the consulting company Bjerking AB has established a leveling network with metal pegs on many buildings. One ascending and one descending PSI analysis was performed, with Sentinel-1 data from the period mid-2015 to mid-2019, and the PSI analyses were done in SARPROZ. After the PSI analyses, comparative permanent scatters (PS) points and metal pegs were identified creating validation pairs. 15 different validation pairs were identified in four different objects, which was one or two buildings. The PSI analyses showed that Uppsala is undergoing significant subsidence in some parts, with an annual rate of about 6 mm/year in the line-of-sight (LOS) direction, which corresponds to about 7.5 mm/year in the vertical direction. The areas of greatest deformation were exclusively found on postglacial clay. The standard deviation of the time series were calculated around their linear regression lines, which was a measure of how temporal coherent the points were. The mean of this standard deviation for the PS points in the 15 validation pairs was 1.5 mm. This standard deviation increased to 2.3 mm in the time series where the direction was transformed from LOS to vertical and where the movements were in respect to the benchmarks. Between the PSI and the precise leveling techniques, in the validation, the vertical subsidence rate differed less than 1 mm/year in all validation pairs and the mean of all differences was 0.56 mm/year. Based on these results, Sentinel-1 data can measure urban subsidence in a satisfactory way, when the PSI technique is applied.

Landsubsidence and its subsequent hazardous effects on buildings and urban infrastructure are important issues in many cities around the world. The city of Uppsala in Sweden is undergoing significant subsidence in areas that are located on clay. Underlying clay units in parts of Uppsala act as mechanically weak layers, which for instance, cause sinking of the ground surface and tilting buildings. Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) has given rise to new methods of measuring movements on earth surface with a precision of a few mm. In this study, a Persistent Scatterer InSAR (PSI) analysis was performed to map the ongoing ground deformation in Uppsala. The subsidence rate measured with PSI was validated with precise leveling data at different locations. Two ascending and descending data sets were analyzed using SARPROZ software, with Sentinel-1 data from the period March 2015 to April 2019. After the PSI analyses, comparative permanent scatterer (PS) points and metal pegs (measured with precise leveling) were identified creating validation pairs. According to the PSI analyses, Uppsala was undergoing significant subsidence in some areas, with an annual rate of about 6 mm/year in the line-of-sight direction. Interestingly, the areas of great deformation were exclusively found on postglacial clay.

Monitoring environmental hazards, due to natural and anthropogenic causes, is one of the important issues, which requires proper data, models, and cross-validation of the results. The geodetic satellite missions, e.g. the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and Sentinel-1, are very useful in this aspect. GRACE missions are dedicated to model the temporal variations of the Earth’s gravity field and mass transportation in the Earth’s surface, whereas Sentinel-1 collects Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data which enables us to measure the ground movements accurately. Extraction of large volumes of water and oil decreases the reservoir pressure, form compaction and consequently land subsidence occurs which can be analyzed by both GRACE and Sentinel-1 data. In this paper, large-scale groundwater storage (GWS) changes are studied using the GRACE monthly gravity field models together with different hydrological models over the major oil reservoirs in Sudan, i.e. Heglig, Bamboo, Neem, Diffra and Unity-area oil fields. Then we correlate the results with the available oil wells production data for the period of 2003-2012. In addition, using the only freely available Sentinel-1 data, collected between November 2015 and April 2019, the ground surface deformation associated with this oil and water depletion is studied. Due to the lack of terrestrial geodetic monitoring data in Sudan, the use of GRACE and Sentinel-1 satellite data is very valuable to monitor water and oil storage changes and their associated land subsidence over our region of interest. Our results show that there is a significant correlation between the GRACE-based GWS change and extracted oil and water volumes. The trend of GWS changes due to water and oil depletion ranged from -18.5 to -6.2mm/year using the CSR GRACE monthly solutions and the best tested hydrological model in this study. Moreover, our Sentinel-1 SAR data analysis using Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI) method shows high rate of subsidence i.e. -24.5, -23.8, -14.2 and -6 mm/year over Heglig, Neem, Diffra and Unity-area oil fields respectively. The results of this study can help us to control the integrity and safety of operations and infrastructure in that region, as well as to study the groundwater/oil storage behavior.

Monitoring environmental hazards, owing to natural and anthropogenic causes, is an important issue, which requires proper data, models, and cross-validation of the results. The geodetic satellite missions, for example, the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and Sentinel-1, are very useful in this respect. GRACE missions are dedicated to modeling the temporal variations of the Earth’s gravity field and mass transportation in the Earth’s surface, whereas Sentinel-1 collects synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data, which enables us to measure the ground movements accurately. Extraction of large volumes of water and oil decreases the reservoir pressure and form compaction and, consequently, land subsidence occurs, which can be analyzed by both GRACE and Sentinel-1 data. In this paper, large-scale groundwater storage (GWS) changes are studied using the GRACE monthly gravity field models together with different hydrological models over the major oil reservoirs in Sudan, that is, Heglig, Bamboo, Neem, Diffra, and Unity-area oil fields. Then, we correlate the results with the available oil wells production data for the period of 2003–2012. In addition, using the only freely available Sentinel-1 data, collected between November 2015 and April 2019, the ground surface deformation associated with this oil and water depletion is studied. Owing to the lack of terrestrial geodetic monitoring data in Sudan, the use of GRACE and Sentinel-1 satellite data is very valuable to monitor water and oil storage changes and their associated land subsidence over our region of interest. Our results show that there is a significant correlation between the GRACE-based GWS anomalies (ΔGWS) and extracted oil and water volumes. The trend of ΔGWS changes due to water and oil depletion ranged from –18.5 ± 6.3 to –6.2 ± 1.3 mm/year using the CSR GRACE monthly solutions and the best tested hydrological model in this study. Moreover, our Sentinel-1 SAR data analysis using the persistent scatterer interferometry (PSI) method shows a high rate of subsidence, that is, –24.5 ± 0.85, –23.8 ± 0.96, –14.2 ± 0.85, and –6 ± 0.88 mm/year over Heglig, Neem, Diffra, and Unity-area oil fields, respectively. The results of this study can help us to control the integrity and safety of operations and infrastructure in that region, as well as to study the groundwater/oil storage behavior.

Mass changes and flow in the Earth's mantle causes the Earth's crust not only to movevertically, but also horizontally and to tilt, and produce a major stress in the lithosphere.Here we use a gravimetric approach to model sub-lithosphere horizontal stress in theEarth's mantle and its temporal changes caused by geodynamical movements likemantle convection in Fennoscandia. The flow in the mantle is inferred from tectonicsand convection currents carrying heat from the interior of the Earth to the crust. Theresult is useful in studying how changes of the stress influence the stability of crust.The outcome of this study is an alternative approach to studying the stress and itschange using forward modelling and the Earth's viscoelastic models. We show that thedetermined horizontal stress using a gravimetric method is consistent with tectonicsand seismic activities. In addition, the secular rate of change of the horizontal stress,which is within 95 kPa/year, is larger outside the uplift dome than inside.

There is an exceptional opportunity of achieving simultaneous and complementary data from a multitude of geoscience and environmental near-earth orbiting artificial satellites to study phenomena related to the climate change. These satellite missions provide the information about the various phenomena, such as sea level change, ice melting, soil moisture variation, temperature changes and earth surface deformations. In this study, we focus on permafrost thawing and its associated gravity change (in terms of the groundwater storage), and organic material changes using the gravity recovery and climate experiment (GRACE) data and other satellite- and ground-based observations. The estimation of permafrost changes requires combining information from various sources, particularly using the gravity field change, surface temperature change, and glacial isostatic adjustment. The most significant factor for a careful monitoring of the permafrost thawing is the fact that this process could be responsible for releasing an additional enormous amount of greenhouse gases emitted to the atmosphere, most importantly to mention carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane that are currently stored in the frozen ground. The results of a preliminary numerical analysis reveal a possible existence of a high correlation between the secular trends of greenhouse gases (CO2), temperature and equivalent water thickness (in permafrost active layer) in the selected regions. Furthermore, according to our estimates based on processing the GRACE data, the groundwater storage attributed due to permafrost thawing increased at the annual rates of 3.4, 3.8, 4.4 and 4.0 cm, respectively, in Siberia, North Alaska and Canada (Yukon and Hudson Bay). Despite a rather preliminary character of our results, these findings indicate that the methodology developed and applied in this study should be further improved by incorporating the in situ permafrost measurements.

The ongoing digitalization of public administration and increasedautomation of legal decision-making bears promise to benefit citizens,businesses and other stakeholders through simpler and more efficient civilprocesses, and thus has great impact on the urban planning and buildingprocess. However, automation of decision-making that is directed orconstrained by normative systems such as laws, regulations and policies,requires a detailed and accurate representation of these concepts andtheir constituent parts, and the domain to which they are applied. Thispaper combines two perspectives on formalisation and classification oflegal relations within the urban planning and building domain. In a crossdisciplinaryfashion, the paper analyses and describes a small part of thisdomain at a higher level of abstraction and formalization using two differentanalysis instruments. Using these tools, we perform structural and conceptualas well as logical analyses of two specific snapshots of a fictitious propertysubdivision case in Sweden, focusing on the legal relations between differententities and parties involved in the specific situations. The structural analysisuses the Land Administration Domain Model ISO 19152:2012 standardformalism, and the logical analysis is based on the notion of atomic types oflegal relations. The paper discusses some of the strengths and weaknesses ofthe two tools regarding the formal representation of rights, restrictions andresponsibilities of different parties in the land administration domain, as wellas how the tools relate to each other and how they can be aligned. This papertakes one step towards a deeper understanding of the domain, and identifyareas for future research that may provide better conditions for efficient andtransparent use of geospatial information, and automation of the propertysubdivision process and other related civil processes.

The present essay set out to investigate the work methodology of closing level crossings and chart the process from the initial need to close the level crossing up to completed closing of level crossing, furthermore; to investigate which factors affect the projects efficiency and progress both in terms of planning and implementation. This essay sets out to answer the following questions: “What is the current way of dealing with closing off level crossings and when would the implementation of a railway plan be useful?” and “How does project-implementation look like when dealing with the project of removal of level crossings in regard to time and cost?”.

When it comes to repealing an overpass easement in order to be able to close a level crossing, a railway plan can be established to facilitate such easement measures. Although it does not directly imply "construction of the railway", if it is to be cancelled without support in a railway plan, the conditions of protection in Chapter 5 and Chapter 7 of the FBL must be fully applied.

The method used was partly interview and partly study of railway plans and cadastral dossier. Twelve interviews were conducted, of which seven represented the Swedish Transport Agency and five persons who represented the National Land Survey, who were considered to fulfil the response required to answer the questions to an enough extent. There were only a limited number of railway plans which included only the closure of level crossings. However, there were a number of railway plans that dealt with the closure of level crossings, but then in connection with other measures which by law are the construction or rebuilding of railways. The united nations global sustainable objective strive to reach 17 objectives before the year 2030 wereof objective 11 is as follows: “Sustainable cities and societies”, which was considered to be connected with this essays problem formulation.

It has emerged from the result that there are both pros and cons of applying railway plan in connection with the closure of level crossings. What can be stated after the implementation of the study is that the Swedish Transport Administration has a desire to implement more railway plans at complicated level crossings and the National Land Survey Office sees certain advantages from a handling perspective to applying a railway plan.

Conceived and developed by Christopher Alexander through his life's work, The Nature of Order, wholeness is defined as a mathematical structure of physical space in our surroundings. Yet, there was no mathematics, as Alexander admitted then, that was powerful enough to capture his notion of wholeness. Recently, a mathematical model of wholeness, together with its topological representation, has been developed that is capable of addressing not only why a space is good, but also how much goodness the space has. This paper develops a structural perspective on goodness of space (both large- and small-scale) in order to bridge two basic concepts of space and place through the very concept of wholeness. The wholeness provides a de facto recursive definition of goodness of space from a holistic and organic point of view. A space is good, genuinely and objectively, if its adjacent spaces are good, the larger space to which it belongs is good, and what is contained in the space is also good. Eventually, goodness of space, or sustainability of space, is considered a matter of fact rather than of opinion under the new view of space: space is neither lifeless nor neutral, but a living structure capable of being more living or less living, or more sustainable or less sustainable. Under the new view of space, geography or architecture will become part of complexity science, not only for understanding complexity, but also for making and remaking complex or living structures.

Authorities define cities-or human settlements in general-through imposing top-down rules in terms of whether buildings belong to cities. Emerging geospatial big data makes it possible to define cities from the bottom up, i.e., buildings determine themselves whether they belong to a city using the notion of natural cities and based on head/tail breaks, which is a classification and visualization tool for data with a heavy-tailed distribution. In this paper, we used 125 million building locations-all building footprints of America (mainland) or their centroids more precisely-to generate 2.1 million natural cities in the country (see the URL as shown in the note of Figure 1). In contrast to government defined city boundaries, these natural cities constitute a valuable data source for city-related research.

As noted in the epigraph, a map was long ago seen as the map of the map, the map of the map, of the map, and so on endlessly. This recursive perspective on maps, however, has received little attention in cartography. Cartography, as a scientific discipline, is essentially founded on Euclidean geometry and Gaussian statistics, which deal respectively with regular shapes and more or less similar things. It is commonly accepted that geographic features are not regular and that the Earth's surface is full of fractal or scaling or living phenomena: far more small things than large ones are found at different scales. This article argues for a new paradigm in mapping, based on fractal or living geometry and Paretian statistics, and – more critically – on the new conception of space, conceived and developed by Christopher Alexander, as neither lifeless nor neutral, but a living structure capable of being more living or less living. The fractal geometry is not limited to Benoit Mandelbrot's framework, but tends towards Christopher Alexander's living geometry and is based upon the third definition of fractal: A set or pattern is fractal if the scaling of far more small things than large ones recurs multiple times. Paretian statistics deals with far more small things than large ones, so it differs fundamentally from Gaussian statistics, which deals with more or less similar things. Under the new paradigm, I make several claims about maps and mapping: (1) the topology of geometrically coherent things – in addition to that of geometric primitives – enables us to see a scaling or fractal or living structure; (2) under the third definition, all geographic features are fractal or living, given the right perspective and scope; (3) exactitude is not truth – to paraphrase Henri Matisse – but the living structure is; and (4) Töpfer's law is not universal, but the scaling law is. All these assertions are supported by evidence, drawn from a series of previous studies. This article demands a monumental shift in perspective and thinking from what we are used to in the legacy of cartography and GIS.

I have advocated and argued for a paradigm shift from Tobler’s law to scaling law, from Euclidean geometry to fractal geometry, from Gaussian statistics to Paretian statistics, and – more importantly – from Descartes’ mechanistic thinking to Alexander’s organic thinking. Fractal geometry falls under the third definition of fractal given by Bin Jiang – that is, a set or pattern is fractal if the scaling of far more small things than large ones recurs multiple times – rather than under the second definition of fractal by Benoit Mandelbrot, which requires a power law between scales and details. The new fractal geometry is more towards Christopher Alexander’s living geometry, not only for understanding complexity, but also for creating complex or living structure. This short paper attempts to clarify why the paradigm shift is essential and to elaborate on several concepts, including spatial heterogeneity (scaling law), scale (or the fourth meaning of scale), data character (in contrast to data quality), and sustainable transport in the big data era.

Inspired by Christopher Alexander's conception of the world - space is not lifeless or neutral, but a living structure involving far more small things than large ones - a topological representation has been previously developed to characterize the living structure or the wholeness of geographic space. This paper further develops the topological representation and living structure for predicting human activities in geographic space. Based on millions of street nodes of the United Kingdom extracted from OpenStreetMap, we established living structures at different levels of scale in a nested manner. We found that tweet locations at different levels of scale, such as country and city, can be well predicted by the underlying living structure. The high predictability demonstrates that the living structure and the topological representation are efficient and effective for better understanding geographic forms. Based on this major finding, we argue that the topological representation is a truly multiscale representation, and point out that existing geographic representations are essentially single scale, so they bear many scale problems such as modifiable areal unit problem, the conundrum of length and the ecological fallacy. We further discuss on why the living structure is an efficient and effective instrument for structuring geospatial big data, and why Alexander's organic worldview constitutes the third view of space.

The national geodetic reference frame of Sweden called SWEREF 99, was adopted in 2000 by EUREF as the realisation of ETRS89 in Sweden and was officially introduced in 2001 as a national reference frame, that eventually in 2007 replaced the former reference frame. The SWEREF 99 reference frame is defined by an active approach through the 21 fundamental SWEPOS permanent GNSS stations, hence relying on positioning services such as the network real time kinematic (NRTK) and post processing service. The SWEREF 99 coordinates are assumed to be fixed in time and no temporal variations are expected. However, the stability of the stations and their coordinates can be altered due to equipment change or software as well as local movements at the reference stations.

To be able to check all alterations mentioned above and having a backup national network of GNSS stations, approximately 300 passive so-called consolidation stations are used. The consolidation stations are a subset (main part) of the so-called SWEREF stations established from 1996 and onwards. All 300 stations are remeasured with static GNSS for 2x24 hours using choke ring antennas on a yearly basis with 50 stations each year. The original processing was done with the Bernese GNSS software (here called Bernese original) and the reprocessing was carried out with both the Bernese and the GAMIT-GLOBK software packages during 2017-2018.

The resulting coordinates in SWEREF 99 from GAMIT and Bernese processing are equal at 1.2 mm level for horizontal and 4 mm for vertical components (1 sigma) when using the same models and processing strategy. The original processing, which partly is based on other models and parameters, differs slightly more (rms 2.4mm) for the north component. Our analysis both from Bernese and GAMIT shows that the standard uncertainties for a single SWEREF 99 determination (2x24 hrs) is 2 mm for the horizontal components and 6-7 mm in height. However, since some stations are slowly moving they have slightly increased the estimated uncertainties. It is interesting to note that the repeatability is on the same level also for the original processing, where we have differences in models and parameters used during the years. This indicates that the SWEREF-concept of determining SWEREF 99 coordinates has worked well on the mentioned uncertainty level.

We performed trend analysis and statistical tests to investigate the stability of the estimated SWEREF 99 coordinates. The analysed station time series (minimum three observations) showed that about 14% of the stations had significant trends at the 95%-level. The possible explanation for those trends can be either local deformation and/or residuals of uplift model and/or computational effects such as lack of good or enough close-by stations for Helmert transformations from ITRF to SWEREF 99.

The outcomes of the new processing and analysis reported here, are used to analyse the stability of SWEREF99 after two decades. The results have also been used to define the SWEREF 99 component in the fit of theSWEN17_RH2000 new geoid model to SWEREF 99 and RH 2000 (Swedish realisation of EVRS).

Today, one of the most important issues is the determination of instantaneous sea level and distinguishing the Tsunami by floating buoy in the ocean. Usually, gyroscopes are used to measure the angular velocity of a buoy. On the other hand, considering the advancement of various technologies in the field of precise accelerometers, make it possible to use these kinds of sensors for navigation purpose. In this research, stable and optimal methods for determining the orientation of a moving buoy is presented using a combination of the gyroscope, accelerometers, and magnetic sensors data. In order to prove the effectiveness of the proposed methods, the raw data were collected from accelerometers, gyroscopes, and magnetometers of (Xsens MTI-G-700) mounted on a Buoy in coastal waters of Kish Island, Iran. Then, by using the proposed methods, the Euler angles of the buoy are determined, while the Euler angles are derived from the Xsens sensor we are considered as a reference. Based on the results, RMSD for Madgwick algorithm are 0.57° 0.37° and 0.50° for Mahony algorithm are 0.56° 0.37° and 0.50° and finally for Complementary algorithm is 0.63° 0.26° and 2.38° which these values are for roll, pitch, and yaw angles respectively. Thus Mahony algorithm for determining roll and yaw Euler angles is more accurate than other algorithms; however, this differences is negligible compared to the Madgwick algorithm. The Complementary algorithm is less accurate than the other two algorithms, especially for determining the yaw angle of the buoy.

Nowadays, the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and Inertial Navigation System (INS) are playing a prominent character in high accuracy navigation applications. Beside camera calibration and tie points which are crucial, GNSS shift and drift errors, which caused by either unknown GNSS antenna-eccentricity, atmospheric effect, GNSS and INS observation qualities, unsolved datum correction between coordinate systems and far away GNSS reference stations from the project area, are important factors in bundle block adjustment ultimate accuracy. In this study, the influence of different a priori observation uncertainties of GNSS and Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) using block- Aerial Triangulation (AT) method is examined. We investigate the effect of IMU and GNSS uncertainties on the final AT results using Trimble Inpho Match-AT software by evaluating the checkpoints RMS residual and employing a statistical t-test for determining the number of images with the gross error. In our study area, the most trustworthy observation uncertainties was 0.2, 0.2, 0.2 meter for East, North, and Height of the GNSS components respectively, and 0.007, 0.007, 0.009 for Omega, Phi, and Kappa for the IMU orientations, respectively.

The paper focuses on approaches to the registration of real property rights in the case of underground or subway tunnels in different EU countries: Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Greece, Poland, Slovenia, and Sweden. The authors conducted analysis on the registration of rights to subway tunnels in the chosen countries, including its effectiveness in ensuring appropriate property rights to construct and exploit tunnels. Special attention was given to limitations related to the lack of legal provisions vertically dividing space, i.e. into layers, and referring to the ownership right to the layers. Benefits which might be achieved by the introduction of a 3D real property subdivision were pointed out. The analysis of the available data concerning the geometry of subway tunnels in particular countries was presented. The authors tried to answer the question whether the accessible data concerning the geometry of subway tunnels allows to generate a 3D geospatial model of a constructed object, and to specify the space which should be determined as a 3D parcel in the 3D real property cadastre, for the purpose of registering property rights for the object (the tunnel).

Due to the popularity of settlement in coastal areas, measures need to be taken in the form of rules and guidelines for construction close to beaches in order to achieve a more ecologically sustainable construction and contribute to sustainable social development.In Sweden, shore protection is used, which aims to protect the public's access to shores, which the right public advocates according to Chapter 2. Section 15, The form of government. Today, shore protection is regulated in the Environmental Code (MB), and a general rule is that it must not be built within 100 meters from the shoreline on land and in water according to MB.A municipality can revoke shore protection if one of the particular reasons in chap-ter 7. Section 18c of the MB is fulfilled. Municipalities' decision on cancellation can be appealed to the County Administrative Board, then to the Land and Environment Court (MMD) and then to the Land and Environment Court of Appeal (MOD).The purpose of the study is to investigate what is considered valid and invalid rea-sons for cancelling shore protection in a detailed development plan, this through a legal case study. The goal is that this study will lead to more equitable and fair man-agement when repealing shore protection within the detailed development plan.A quantitative and qualitative analysis forms the basis of the results presented in this study. The quantitative method consists of categorization of detailed plans that are examined. Through this categorization, it can be deduced which reasons municipali-ties with different population conditions demand when cancelling shore protection within the detailed development plan. The detailed development plan study was de-limited to Ostergotland County at the beginning, after which the study was supple-mented with Kalmar County. It's because Ostergotland did not fill up the quota for the requested number of detailed plans. The qualitative method of the case study makes it possible for a report to clarify which reasons are legally sustainable based on the judgments that are being studied.The results highlighted by the study have shown that there are differences between the interval sizes, that is, that the municipalities interpret and handle the shore pro-tection legislation differently in connection with the shore protection being repealed within the detailed development plan. Thus, the County Administrative Board should check the municipalities more closely, as their task is to monitor the objec-tives of the shore protection.